Reflections on the Water

Mar 26, 2015

Reflections on the Water of ASF Consortium's recent 'suppliers meeting' on the Gold Coast.

A person who attended the recent ASF China Consortium's 'supplier's meeting' reported back to SOS that the rosy picture ASF are painting about the meeting wasn't exactly the true story although their presentation was slick.

Our insider told us that some questions were asked with a leaning towards SOS's perspective on the lack of viability of the cruise ship terminal (CST). At a previous ASF gathering, ASF made it clear that they were not and would not look at purchasing land on the private real-estate market for their Integrated Resort Development (casino, hotels, apartments, retail) because the CST was to be their 'legacy on the Gold Coast'.

ASF also dodged any questions related to the recent State election and Labor's electoral stance of no development on Wavebreak, Doug Jennings Park, Marine Stadium or the Broadwater. Are ASF in deep denial?

ASF could be accused of being delusional to think that a Premier who was elected on a clearly stated platform of 'no sale or lease of public assets' would suddenly change her mind because ASF wish it to be so or because certain promises were made behind closed doors by the previous State government and GCCC officials.

The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) mentioned by the CCIQ in ASF's recent web article occurred nearly 10 years ago and there have never been more development proposals and applications for planning permits (Commonwealth Games and private real-estate) as there are at the moment on the Gold Coast, right on the back of years of construction work on the Light Rail.

Unfortunately many of the tender parcels for the Commonwealth Games were too big for most smaller and local companies to have a good chance get into the game. If the tender parcels were divided into smaller components perhaps more local tradies and companies would have got a look in.

457 Visas

Also some developers are hiring 457 visa 'tradies' for Gold Coast work because of their 'cheaper rates'. For instance, one SOS supporter is a plasterer and he told us that gangs of South Korean plasterers are getting GC work because of their cheaper rates but sometimes he is called in to tidy up 'their mistakes and mess'.

One thing in the ASF guff is true, construction is a transient occupation, just like mining, shearing and fruit picking. The people of the GC do not owe the national and international construction industries infinite jobs for an infinite amount of time. In fact, the more interesting figure would be to see how many construction workers have returned and how many new workers have arrived on the GC since the initial downturn during the GFC rather than just the numbers who left during that period.

ASF also sprouted a figure of 'at least 80% local jobs' on the Gold Coast through their project which is exactly the same figure ASF's major consortium partners (the two that are debarred by the World bank for 8 years) quoted to the Bahamas Government before getting the green-light to develop an IRD on public land, foreshores and beaches. However, once the project began, 80% of the construction workers were brought in from overseas. These Chinese workers lived in compounds and were separated totally from the locals and did not contribute to the local economy.

Once the IRD was constructed, Bahamas locals also found that 80% of the workers employed at the casino and resort were also foreigners. So much for creating '80% local jobs'. History is a good teacher if we recognise its value.

Also ASF advertised for two years (2013-2014) on their Gold Coast website that they would create 500 jobs during construction, rising to 770 in the latter years of the project (i.e. in 15-20 years time). After SOSA and the GCB revealed the hidden 2012 Urbis Economic report and the 2500 FTE local jobs the Broadwater supports just by leaving it alone, suddenly the ASF construction jobs ('direct and indirect' - a curious but unexplained term) rose to a figure of 5000.

We have found that with all ASF's unsubstantiated figures, claims and media statements, no detailed reports have ever been tabled in the public domain for scrutiny or verification i.e. ASF appear to just make it up as they go along.

Likewise with ASF's supposed 'Navigational Simulation' report (2014) in which they supposedly conducted '36 ship runs in all weather conditions' with 6 vessels of various sizes that currently sail around the world. Half the ships ASF tested never come to Australia and '36 runs' will not test all the combinations and permutations of current, swell, wave, sea, wind, channel conditions encountered on the Gold Coast during the 'cruise season' i.e. our cyclone season. Yet ASF concluded: 'ships of all sizes in winds up to 30 knots' can safely enter the Broadwater.

Safety Report 3-Pages Long

ASF's navigational safety report was only 3-pages long with no details or charts of the actual ship runs or input data. As a comparison, the now discredited 2003 Malaysian Simulation report (the input data did not reflect the conditions encountered on the GC) conducted over 200 simulation runs and was 70-pages long.

ASF also reveal in their 3-page 'simulation report' that they only used 'displacement tonnage' to test their ship runs rather than gross tonnage; that is, they only simulated runs with the hull of the ship not the above-deck infrastructure, which on a cruise vessel can be up to 22 stories high. The effects of winds on a cruise vessel's steering is stronger than that on container vessels but ASF's 'test vessels' apparently didn't have anything on deck. They may as well have floated banana peels or paper boats in and out the Seaway because it would have been about as accurate as testing 'displacement tonnage' vessels.

ASF also claimed that 500 businesses attended their 'suppliers meeting'. Our observer suggested that over 400 individuals were there but they did not represent 400 different businesses. Presumably many attended with an interest in making money out of ASF's Broadwater proposal. In contrast over 3000 people attend Save Our Spit rallies with no monetary gain as their motivation but rather the civic and social justice aim of keeping public open space in the hands of the public for all to use and enjoy.

The GCCC commissioned report 'Cruise Ship Terminal Business Case Study' by AECGroup in 2012 (ratepayer funded) revealed that 'a Gold Coast cruise terminal is financially unviable as a stand-alone operation'. And all this was supposed to be, as promised by the Mayor and the previous LNP Government, 'at no risk or cost' to ratepayers or tax-payers.

The latest independent audit of ASF in correspondence to the ASX (and in an article published in The Australian - Business pages recently) reveals that ASF are likely to become an unviable entity in the near future, such is their lack of capital, income, cash reserves and their level of expenditure on 'external professional consultants' during the last 6 months of 2014 (perhaps based on the assumption that the Qld LNP would be re-elected to government and give them the green-light for their proposal).

It would be a brave (or suspect) State Government that allowed ASF Consortium to do business with public assets in Queensland, notwithstanding ASF's World Bank debarment for 'bribery, fraud and corruption' in the Philippines and their 'casino partner', Global Gaming Asset Management being in court for several years over their alleged 'breach of contract' regarding two casinos they are supposed to have been 'managing' in Manilla and the USA.

But ASF's PR machine continues to peddle their b-s and Mr Poole and his cohorts keep getting paid for as long as ASF's death rattle continues and ASF don't run out of cash. Poole even falsely claimed once again in the 'ASF Year in Review' online newsletter that ASF were chosen as 'preferred proponents' for the Broadwater IRD. Poole claimed:

This year's Project milestones include: • February 2014 – the Queensland Government announces ASF Consortium as the preferred proponent demonstrating a cruise ship terminal is a possibility, subject to a number of conditions(Tim Poole. ASF Year in Review, 19th Dec. 2014)

ASF continued this falsehood in recent correspondence to the ASX:

Gold Coast Integrated Resort ("GCIR"), Queensland

In February 2014, ASF Consortium Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Group, was announced as the Proponent by the Queensland Government and the Gold Coast City Council for the proposed multi-billion dollar GCIR project. The project is located in the Gold Coast Broadwater on Wave Break Island (sic), Moon Island (sic) and the Southern Spit.

(ASF Group Limited. Directors' Report. 31st December 2014)

Firstly, ASF were only ever chosen as a 'possible proponent' (not 'preferred') for the Broadwater Marine Development Project (BMDP) which was announced as being 'abandoned' by Deputy Premier Seeney on 4th May 2014 (in Parliament and official correspondence to the GCCC) with 'no preferred proponent selected for the project'.

No 'possible proponent', 'proponent' or 'preferred proponent' has ever been announced for the 'casino licence project' known as the Integrated Resort Development Project (IRDP) which was initiated solely by the previous Queensland Government. The IRDP has nothing to do with the Gold Coast City Council, other than the Mayor's continual public lobbying for it to go ahead and his 12 unexplained trips to China during the 12 months of 2014.

We now look forward to the 'Federal Senate Inquiry into Certain Aspects of Queensland Government Administration...' Report (2014) which is due in the public domain on 27th March 2015. It should be a very interesting read.